


No More Zombies

by KyeAbove



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Humor, Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Crushes, Drama, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Harm to Children, M/M, Parent-Child Relationship, Past Character Death, Past Child Death, Rating May Change, Toons As Humans, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 00:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16106504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove
Summary: As one of the few remaining humans, Joey is many things. A survivor and a cynic is a given.When a child who calls himself Bendy enters his miserable life, Joey finds things don’t get brighter but maybe they can get better all the same. If anything, Joey is no longer alone in the world.





	1. Chapter 1

The zombie apocalypse scenarios that Joey ran through his head growing up included constant fear and zombies always on his heels. It was often rather dead instead. Not much more to the zombies than to get out of an area if they got particularly bad. Some ran faster than the others, but they were all like corpses in the end of the race. 

Joey wasn’t even that good of an aim with a gun, and he still managed to do relatively well in his zombie killing score. Not that he was keeping count. 

Joey thought he should, for how bored he was getting. It had been about four years since it all started. Almost four years of being alone.

Other than the twinge of sadness of losing some family members he actually liked, and the despair of being without some conveniences, life had actually improved in some ways. Killing people he didn’t like had always been a dream of his. He’d never actually believed in dreaming, but if it got him day to day, maybe there was something for it. 

Four years ago, amongst all the jokes, and the outside panics, something had mutated. The  scientists studying it denied accidentally mutating it. The official story  _ wasn’t  _ that one of their interns stole a sample to get back at his neighbor while visiting family. 

Nobody expected The Apocalypse to start in Arkansas in all places in America, but later everyone would say  _ of course it was in Arkansas.  _ It all started just a block away from Joey's parents' house.

Calling the infected outright zombies scared the public, as well as made them laugh. But they were zombies. 

There was no public remaining now. Joey was pretty sure he was the only one left uninfected from his town. Everyone was prepared to fight, to riot, but only Joey got lucky. 

Luck was all it was. All the other people who defended themselves still got infected. 

An old hag from down the street blamed the gays for The Apocalypse when the reports started rolling in. Being gay himself, the results were inconclusive when she got turned, and Joey shot her through the head without a second thought. It was his first kill. 

His second, Joey shot his own mother, and it was the happiest moment of his life. All those bitter years ended with her on the ground. 

She was a zombie at the time. That was Joey’s story and he would take that statement to his shallow grave or sprawling. Not that any proper law enforcement existed these days. But most people didn’t take kindly to those who killed more than just zombies, or whatever they killed for food. 

Food. Oh, how Joey missed microwaveable food. This fridge couldn’t have ran in years even if it wasn’t picked clean and mildly destroyed. Joey gave a mournful glance at the broken microwave on the kitchen floor. What Joey wouldn’t do for just one more mini-pizza. 

Joey slammed the fridge door shut, and it fell off. Joey frowned.

“Never thought I’d relate to a fridge door.” Joey prodded it with his foot. “But here I am, relating.” He also never thought he’d ever be this consistently desperate for something decent to eat. Even his mother’s cooking at this point would do him well. 

Since the fridge was a bust, Joey decided to check the food cupboards and the pantry next. Maybe he’d find stale raisin bran. It had happened once. A house he’d gone into had been picked so clean even the kitchen sink was gone, but there had been an generic bag of raisin bran cereal left. He’d feasted like a god that week, even though he’d always hated raisins. 

No such luck. Not even a crumb. Just a lot of dust. A waste of his not so precious time. Joey yawned, finding motivation to keep doing this disappearing more and more each day. Maybe he’d just let a zombie bite him one day, even if it was to only alleviate his boredom temporarily. 

Against all odds, and for all this fears…

...someone else yawned in this house, followed by a whimper. 

Joey, dignified, screamed and jumped up onto the counter. Zombies didn’t have the empathy to yawn in turn to someone or something yawning, but humans were just as dangerous these days. Joey wasn’t alone in this house. 

Readying his gun, Joey really wished he’d found food before now. Dying on an empty stomach didn’t sound so nice, if this was really the end. 

“WHO’S THERE?” 

Again there was that whimper, and now it a more observant mood, Joey registered that it was rather high pitched even for a whimper. 

Then, from out of the cupboard under the sink, which Joey wouldn’t haven’t have thought to check in his hungered state, there was a creek, and the small door was opened from the inside. Looking at him from across the room, were scared, curious eyes, followed by a tiny head sticking out so Joey could be expected more. 

“Huh, you’re really not a zombie. Not even a talkative one, if those exist.”    
  
It was a child. A child with messy, tangled hair, and skinny as all hell. The child shrunk back into the cupboard as Joey stayed frozen in place. A child. Not even a zombie child. 

Children were rare these days, so Joey couldn’t let his guard down. Most of the country’s children had either been infected or killed early on as the virus spread through schools and friends and families. Some of the people Joey had talked to told ever since, many children died after the first wave because their parents died protecting them, and then the children couldn’t protect themselves afterwards. 

The children that lived on today were either as lucky as Joey was, or dangerous by nature. Either having to survive without adults’ or at least someone older’s help made them crafty and scary. Or, if being raised by people or persons who had a small burden after this all happened, they were well versed in the ways of this new world. 

Joey and the child pointed their guns at each other at the very same time. Even holding onto his gun with both hands clenched white, the child could barely reach the trigger. They stared each other, daring the other to shoot with eye contact alone. 

Not that Joey could shoot a child. It seemed the child couldn’t shoot him either, or so the child was going to pretend.

“It’s empty. Please don’t hurt me!” The child begged, lowering the gun. 

Joey stiffened a laugh.

“I won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt me. But I don’t believe for a second that your gun isn’t loaded.” Joey kept the gun aimed at the child. The child’s face scrunched up, and then of all things, he stuck his tongue out at Joey. 

Well, if that was how he wanted to play this game....

“Up yours, kid.” Joey removed one hand from his gun, and stuck his middle finger up. 

“I can do you double!” The child placed his gun on the ground and then stuck both his middle fingers up. 

This time, Joey didn’t stop his laughter. 

“I like you, kid.”  _ Like _ was a broad term. Joey was amused at best. “Shoot me if you want, but let me find my dinner first.” _Empty cupboards._ But there was always the next house. Joey could just leave, but now he was curious as to what the child would do. He was still looking at Joey, now glaring, and with both his fingers still up. 

“You don’t eat kids, do you?” 

What sick…?

“Who tried to eat you?” There was actual concern in Joey’s voice. It did wonders on the child. 

“I think his name was Chester. I got away pretty fast after that. I don’t think I’d taste good always.” 

Human meat didn’t taste all that bad. Joey had been given some before. Still, to think someone thought to try and eat a kid? Not even any meat, by any standards. 

“I met a guy like that. I don’t think even he’d try to eat a kid though. Neither would I.” 

The child visibly relaxed at this, and Joey really meant it. 

“Yeah, Chester was bad.” Again with the  _ was. _ “He won’t hurt anyone anymore.”   


Either the zombies got him, or the child was in fact capable of pulling a trigger on someone if threatened. 

“Well, that’s certainly good.” 

The child grinned, caught somewhere been mischievousness and insanity. 

“I shot him, and then pushed him off a building. Zombies ate him from there!” 

To hear this from a child of the old days would be a cause for concern, even for Joey. But for child of the new days, Joey was shocked, and impressed. 

“You have to tell me everything, in all the bloody details, kid.” 

“And I won’t kill you until you’ve had food! I’m called Bendy, by the way. So anyways…”

And that’s how the world went. Nothing changed in the grand scheme of things, but Joey was no longer alone in this world. 


	2. Chapter 2

Bendy was likely as lonely as Joey was. Alright by himself, but craving some sort of positive interaction sometimes. The last positive interaction Joey had until now had been Grant Cohen, a former accountant who made his living these days gaining favors from people for food. And then using those people for food. Joey only escaped Grant’s cooking pot because Grant claimed his meat would be spoiled. 

The child talked on and on, and even left the cupboard entirely to be closer to Joey. He’d decided Joey was trustworthy, for whatever reason. 

“I’ll break even with you, kid.” Joey said with a grin, as he pulled his earmuffs over his ears, which the child took as a sign to cover his ears, and aimed and shot a zombie that was in view of the window. “I’m Josephine. Most people call me Joey. ” 

“Joey...I like you, I think.”

“You seem fine yourself, Bendy.” 

“Thank you.”

Bendy shuffed. “You’re very good with a gun, Joey.” 

“Not really. I just had to be able to aim and kill. Well, it’s hard to explain...one moment I’ve got my video game paused because my sister who was away at college, Marjorie, was texting me about some weird shit her boyfriend Sammy got into that day, the next my mother is shrieking because my father is shuffling around oddly and next thing I’ve shot them both. I got used to it.”

“What even are most of those things.”

Joey stopped and thought and while this boy was older that four years, he likely wasn’t old enough to remember much of what life was like before the zombies. Something that separated them greatly. Joey still kept his phone with him, keeping it charged with a solar charger, just for the small chance Marjorie might one day be able to text him back even just one more time. Even though she was likely a zombie or dead by now. 

“A lot of things you’re too young to understand.” 

“I’ve heard things were really different.” 

“They were. But this is life now. Do you have any plans before the zombies finally get you?” 

“No. Just don’t want to be hungry anymore.”

“Oh, same. Big mood.” Joey responded in agreement. “I was just looking for food in this house.” 

“So was I. Until you came.” 

“There is no food here, is there.”

“Nope.” 

Joey was inclined to believe Bendy. Even if was lying to protect a crumb he’d found, the kid certainly needed it more than Joey. 

“Well, I guess I better be getting on my way then. Maybe they’re food somewhere in this town.” Joey finally got off the counter, and stretched out his limbs, and made to leave alone. Then suddenly he felt his leg being latched onto. 

Joey looked down. Bendy was looking up him with large eyes. Sad and determined. 

“Can I follow you? I really don’t got any bullets in my gun.” Bendy even demonstrated that, opening his gun. Unless there was one in the chamber, he was telling the truth. 

And Joey was alright with his. So he picked Bendy up from off his leg, and held him close as he continued walking to exit the house. Bendy seemed confused by the closeness, but eventually melted into the first hug he’d had in many years. 

Little knowing that would be the first of many hugs.


End file.
